Taking a break?

“If it’s a second-degree murder, it’s normally 10 years or whatever the court orders. But where it’s a second-degree murder by a person who already has a murder on his record, then the automatic sentence is life without parole for 25 years,” he said.

MacDonald, who was jailed on a previous murder conviction, gave no motive for killing Thériault.

But Allman says he “had expressed some animosity towards Mr. Thériault” because the cult leader was convicted of harming women.

“He was often a victim of his past. The assaults had nothing to do with how he acted while incarcerated. It was because of his past,” Renée Millette said, adding Thériault had regrets about his time as the commune’s spiritual leader.